I have hp 6710b laptop which I frequent between my office and home. At my office there is wireless LAN with static IP thru Linksys Access point and at my home there is broadband wireless router of D-Link. The wireless adapter is Broadcom 802.1/a/b/g WLAN. The OS is Win XP with SP3. To ensure hasslefree net connectivity I set the TCP/IP setting as - in General Tab it was set for DHCP for D-Link router and in the Alternate Configuration it was set for the static IP address of the Linksys AP.

For a few days there was no problem in getting the internet. However, since a few days I am not getting internet connection in the office. However, when the static IP address is set in the General Tab of the TCP/IP setting I get the internet immediately. But, in that case I do not get the intyernet at Home as there is Dynamic IP address and I have to again reset the setting under General Tab for DHCP.

This way I have to change the TCP/IP setting all the time. I have enabled the Wreless Zero Configuration of Windows. What may be tormenting me? Please help.

Let me see if I understand you correctly. At work you can't get on the internet. Can you access any of the other computers in the office or is it completely off of the network ("I can't get to the internet" does not exactly mean "I can't get on the network")? You then copy the EXACT same settings from the alternate tab to the general tab and it works?

My suspicion is that changing the settings and saving the changes simply re initializes a portion of the TCP/IP stack, not so much that the settings themselves need changing. When you go to work and can't get onto the network, what does it say when you go to a command prompt and run ipconfig /all ? (don't include the question mark, of course )

Then what happens if you run ipconfig /renew ? (Again, sans the '?')

Furthermore, when you go to work are you booting the machine up cold or are you waking it up from hibernation or sleep? Yes, there are a lot of questions, but each is important. Such is the practice of troubleshooting.

This is what I get in the screen when in General Tab of TCP/IP setting I set for DHCP i.e. Obtain an IP address automatically and in the Alternate Configuration I set the static IP address along with Deafult Gateway, Subnet Mask, DNS 1 & DNS2:

One important thing I would like to include that the static IP address of the liknksys router is as follows:
IP Address: 10.4.108.169
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Default gateway: 10.4.108.1
DNS: 4.2.2.2
DNS2: 203.153.41.28
However, I see very different settings in contrast to the above-mentioned parameters.
Following is the screenshot which I get after ipconfig/renew command when I use the static IP address in the Alternate Configuration tab.
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While giving command ipconfig/renew I get as below:
No operation can be performed on Local Area Connection while it has its media disconnected.
An error occurred while renewing interface Wireless Network Connection 2: unable to connect youy DHCP server. Request has timed out.

Moreover, I do cold booting in the office. Again, in the Network Connection screen I get one more adapter named 1394, I do not know what is this.
I hope aforesaid information will throw some light on my problem.
Thanks.

In your second "ipconfig /renew" output, you said that you had the general tab set to obtain IP information automatically and the alternate configuration tab had the static IP information. What is curious is that the "ipconfig /renew" information says that the computer has a 192.168.2.x address and not the 10.4.108.x information of your work network. That means it's receiving DHCP information from somewhere, and that info is certainly not your work information (10.4.108.169, etc.). Did you do that test with ipconfig while you were at home or while you were at work? I'd like to know where your computer received that 192.168.2.x address from because if you were at work, then that means there is another device handing out DHCP leases which is causing the conflict. Of course, if that was the case, every computer in the office would likely be having problems as well.

I'd like to see the "ipconfig /all" information when you set the network card to receive IP information automatically (DHCP), with the alternate static IP informatoin in the alternate tab and then put the computer on the work network.

@nonapeptide
All the configurations sent in my 2nd post refer to my office network. Other computers are not facing the problem of network as when in the "General" Tab of TCP/IP setting the static ip is set the internet comes thru. The same is in mine case also. However, only when I set the static ip address in the "Alternate Configuration" and in the "General" Tab it is set to automatically obtain ip address the network connection does not come thru.
The second report of ipconfig/all in my 2nd post refers to the case when DHCP is enabled in "General" Tab and static ip address is given in the "Alternate Configuration".
I also really wonder where from it is getting the ip address 192.168.2.x. What may be the reason? And this is the main culprit I hope. Please let me know if you need further information. Thanks.

However, only when I set the static ip address in the "Alternate Configuration" and in the "General" Tab it is set to automatically obtain ip address the network connection does not come thru.

Just to make sure I understand you: No one else has this problem in the office? Are there others who have the static IP info in the Alternate Configuration tab and on the general tab they are set to use DHCP?

abhijitroy wrote:

I also really wonder where from it is getting the ip address 192.168.2.x. What may be the reason? And this is the main culprit I hope. Please let me know if you need further information. Thanks.

There are two possibilities. First, you could be connecting to an entirely different wireless network that someone nearby has set up. wireless Zero Configuration would do this for you. Check for different wireless networks in the area and make sure that you're connecting to the right one. You could also disable the wireless network card and plug into the network via a wire and put the settings to get DHCP on the general tab and the static settings on the Alternate tab. See if things work as normal.

Second, you could be on the correct network but there is a device on the network that is handing out DHCP leases. You could run a protocol analyzer like Wireshark or Microsoft's Network Monitor to see where the DHCP leases are coming from. You could also use a tool like dhcploc to track down where they are coming from. Dhcploc is included in the Windows XP Support Tools download.

I suspect that you are connecting to a different wireless network than what you are expecting. Let us know what you find!

What I undestand is that my network is first seeking dhcp and then it goes for static ip address. As in dhcp it is getting a server it is not moving next to get the static ip. I think it is same linksys server of my office which is broadcasting the dhcp and also accepts on my static ip. Actually, when it was being installed we were able to "connect" via dhcp but were unable to connect to the internet. Connection to the internet was possible only after we were given individual static ip's. I further understand that Access Points generally work on both static ip and dhcp. When scanning the wireless networks I find that Channel No. 11 is the channel of my AP. Though I see 4 or 5 instances Ch. 11, I think they all belong to the same linksys server, they only come from different wireless APs.

I think my problem is in existence as my computer first seeks dhcp and then seeks static ip. If it is possible to set it to seek the static ip first then my problem will perhaps be fixed. Is there any way to achieve this?
Thanks!

What I undestand is that my network is first seeking dhcp and then it goes for static ip address. As in dhcp it is getting a server it is not moving next to get the static ip. I think it is same linksys server of my office which is broadcasting the dhcp and also accepts on my static ip.

You can simply turn off the DHCP server in the LinkSys if you want.

abhijitroy wrote:

Actually, when it was being installed we were able to "connect" via dhcp but were unable to connect to the internet. Connection to the internet was possible only after we were given individual static ip's.

Probably some of the DHCP options weren't correct (default gateway, DNS servers, etc.). I'm sure if you configure the options correctly it would work just fine.

abhijitroy wrote:

I think my problem is in existence as my computer first seeks dhcp and then seeks static ip. If it is possible to set it to seek the static ip first then my problem will perhaps be fixed. Is there any way to achieve this?

You can't natively have the static IP come first and then automatically switch to DHCP if that static info doesn't work on the network. You could use a third party too like "Multi Network Manager" which allows you to switch between many different networks with just one or two clicks.